Ending the Pain
by umpcai
Summary: When showing Phoebe holograms of the initial spark of love fails to break the protective shield around her heart, Coop decides to take her back to a time when she believed in love with all her heart, to a time when she chose not to vanquish a demon.
1. Interference

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Charmed. Some dialogue is taken directly from the show.

**Ending the Pain**

**Interference**

Coop waved his hand, closing the holograms his Cupid ring had been projecting. "Don't you see? Phoebe, it's about the way love begins. It's uncensored, unmasked, when it's pure. That's what you need to believe in."

Phoebe Halliwell skeptically stared at him as he held his ring above her heart. Phoebe was his newest charge, a Charmed One who no longer had faith in love. As a powerful witch, she'd had plenty of heartbreak in her thirty years. Many loved ones were lost because of her and her sisters' destiny. His bosses, the Elders, had sent Coop to Phoebe in order to help her not give up on love.

It had been a long day. Phoebe was resistant. Coop had taken her to the past as an observer of her past loves, mainly their ends. The pain he knew she felt when each of those relationships fell apart helped him to better understand the reason she had placed a protective shield around her heart. But, he was confident that he could help her. When they'd returned to her apartment, he'd conjured up images of happy times at the beginnings of her past love affairs.

Now, Coop was searching for the shield again, hoping that he wouldn't find it, that remembering the good parts of love had destroyed Phoebe's barrier. As his ring glowed and highlighted the shield, Coop frowned.

"Since your lovely ideas haven't worked, would you mind leaving? I have better things to do right now."

Coop lowered his hand and glanced at Phoebe. "Better things like giving up on love?"

Phoebe glared at him. "My next column is due at the paper tomorrow morning."

"Work on it later," Coop said, grabbing her elbow, "we've got another trip to make."

Phoebe jerked away. "I told you I don't want to see anymore. I know how horrible my love life has always turned out. I don't need to relive it."

Coop took her arm again. "I promise, if this next idea of mine doesn't work, I'll think of another way to help you, one that's less painful."

"How about if this doesn't work you go away?"

Phoebe didn't receive an answer because at that moment Coop's ring lit up and the two vanished in a tiny red heart.

They reappeared in a dimly lit place, but it took Phoebe only a split second to recognize it.

"Take me back. Take me back right now!" she demanded in a whisper, purposefully keeping her gaze on Coop instead of the mausoleum's other occupants.

Before replying, Coop made sure they were safely hidden behind a sarcophagus. They couldn't be discovered and alter the past. Satisfied with their hiding place, he put his hands on her shoulders and said forcefully, "No. You need to see this."

He turned her around, keeping a steady hold on her lest she decide to turn around again. "Phoebe, look," he directed, noticing her head was still tilted away from what he wanted her to see.

Phoebe shook her head, but turned it anyway. Fighting back the tears she knew wanted out, she told herself that she'd watched one of their first meetings and his demise only hours before. She could handle seeing this, too. It was no big deal, especially since she no longer felt any love for the man she saw only a few feet away from her, embracing her past self.

"Phoebe? Phoebe!"

"That your sisters?" questioned Coop.

"You take me here and you don't even know what's happening?"

"Obviously. That's why you've had to explain things everywhere we went today. I only know what you felt at each of these encounters. And, this one," he motioned to the couple they were watching, "I want you to remember that feeling."

"I better go," Cole Turner said when he and the Phoebe of his time broke their kiss upon hearing her sisters' calls.

"They'll keep looking for you."

"Your sisters?" Cole asked his lover.

"Them, too," the younger, blonde-haired Phoebe realized. She had been referring to the demons that were chasing Cole because he'd betrayed them, but her sisters would also want to vanquish him. That was their duty as good witches, to protect innocents and destroy demons.

"Phoebe!" Piper yelled. She and her older sister Prue had been frantically searching for their baby sister since she had disappeared with her boyfriend. They'd all just discovered that he was a demon.

From their hiding spot, Coop turned to the future Phoebe again. "So, what's happening?"

Phoebe didn't remove her eyes from Cole, who was now running his fingers through her past self's hair. "My sisters and I had just found out he was a demon. He'd started dating me so that he's have an easier time killing us. Piper and Prue are looking fro me. Cole shimmered me away from them and told me he was half-human, had fallen in love with me, and had realized that he couldn't follow the orders of his demonic superiors to kill me after all. He killed them, so we fought off a bounty hunter right before this."

"Oh." Coop absorbed the information. He knew who the man was from the talk he'd had with Phoebe earlier about her longest relationship, which was with Cole. He'd also showed Phoebe a couple other meetings with Cole before this one, but Coop hadn't been sure just what point in Phoebe and Cole's rocky relationship they were currently witnessing.

The forbidden affair had gone from Cole's betrayal of his demonic heritage to Phoebe's betrayal of her witch one. Phoebe had been turned into a Banshee and become evil's Queen in the Underworld. Cole had been possessed by the Source of All Evil, gone crazy, and died more than once. In pain, Phoebe had run from their love, denying its existence while Cole had become obsessive in his quest to keep her. Both had made mistakes that had ultimately caused their relationship to end.

"Give me your shirt," they heard past Phoebe say as she began removing Cole's dark jacket.

"My shirt?" asked Cole, confused.

"Hurry up!" said Phoebe.

She threw the garment onto the ground. Stepping away from Cole, she retrieved the vanquishing potion meant for him off the floor. It had been dropped there in the fight with the bounty hunter, Krell.

Cole looked at her guardedly as she took her former place in front of him.

"Give me your hand," Phoebe said. She reached into the purse that was slung across her shoulder and removed the athame she'd taken from Cole earlier. Cole went to remove his hand from her grasp when she said, "Trust me."

Looking into her deep brown eyes, Cole saw all he needed to do just that. Phoebe used the ceremonial knife to cut a long line across his palm. He winced and watched as she dropped the athame on top of his discarded jacket. She held his hand over the pile and urged him to make a fist. Blood fell onto the shirt and Phoebe threw the purple potion at it. Phoebe and Cole flinched back from the small explosion that occurred.

Coop curiously looked at the woman standing beside him. "This is what you meant when you said you initially faked his vanquish."

Phoebe nodded. "I wish I would've really killed him," she said bitterly. "Then I wouldn't have had to go through all the pain after."

"You wish that?" Coop inquired in disbelief.

Phoebe shrugged and resumed watching her past.

"Nobody will look for you anymore," the Phoebe by Cole said as her hand reached up to gently caress his cheek. "You're dead."

Ignoring the flames slowly burning his shirt into ashes and a hole in the cemented ground, Cole wrapped an arm around Phoebe.

They heard her sisters yell again, closer this time. "Phoebe!"

"Down here!" she called back before hurriedly facing her boyfriend. "You have to go, please."

As the two kissed passionately, almost desperately, both aware that they may never see each other again, Phoebe of the future spun on her heel, ready to order Coop to return her to her own time. Unfortunately, the back of her foot hit the stone grave she was behind. The noise echoed throughout the chamber.

At the same time, Prue and Piper's footsteps at the top of the building's stairs resounded in the room. The clamor of feet made it clear to Phoebe and Cole, who'd jerked apart at the noise of a shoe hitting rock, that it wasn't the other two thirds of the Charmed Ones in the room with them. Cole moved Phoebe behind him, ready to protect her if it was another demon.

Behind the grave, Phoebe moved closer to Coop. "Take me back now, before the past is changed," she hissed.

"Didn't you want to have killed him now?" he asked. "Well, here's your chance."

As Phoebe watched, dumbfounded, Coop stepped out of the shadows and confronted the two they were previously watching. "Hi, I'm Coop," he said cheerfully, extending a hand to Cole.

"Phoebe, thank God you're okay," Piper breathed as she and Prue appeared at the foot of the stairs and took in the room's occupants.

"What is going on?" demanded Prue, taking notice of her sister's hands gripping Cole's arm. She saw Coop out of the corner of her eye. "And who are you?"

"Coop," he announced brightly. "I'm a Cupid from the future. I wanted to show Phoebe her past relationships, since she's now given up on love."

"What?" past Phoebe uttered.

"Oh, not you, Phoebe. I can tell how much you believe in love. I meant future you. You can come out, now," Coop hollered over his shoulder.

"What are you talking about?" Piper gaped at him.

Prue meanwhile had decided to ignore the stranger. Saving Phoebe was more important than a time traveler at the moment. She marched up to Cole and ripped Phoebe from his arms. "You, go by Piper, I'll finish this. I know it would be hard for you."

"No, Prue, wait," she protested, reaching for Cole again. "Shimmer out, please," Phoebe begged him as Piper held her back, opting to also ignore Coop. The fellow future traveler he claimed to have hadn't made an appearance.

"I'm not leaving you with him," Cole said, seemingly the only one wary of Coop.

"They'll kill you!" Phoebe proclaimed. "Prue, please don't! I'm begging you! I love him. He's good now. Please leave him be."

"Leo!" Piper called for her Whitelighter boyfriend, who was the witches' guardian angel of sorts, when Phoebe moved out of her grip. "Stop her."

Hearing Piper's call in his head, Leo orbed across town and landed in front of Phoebe, effectively stopping her path to Cole. He placed his hands on her forearms, "I'm sorry, Phoebe."

"I know you love him, Pheebs," Prue said soothingly as she held up a vial of vanquishing potion, "but he's a demon. We have to vanquish him. Piper and I will help you get over him. This is for the best."

"I'll shimmer when you throw that," Cole announced. "And if you love your sister so much, why aren't you paying any attention to this guy who claims to be here with her future self?"

"Yeah, I am feeling kind of neglected," Coop said.

"I'll make sure it hits you before you can even think to shimmer," Prue glowered at her opponent.

Cole smirked, confident in his ability to get away. He focused on Coop, "What are you doing here, really?"

"Cole, please! I'll be fine," Phoebe struggled to escape Leo's restraining arms. "Let go, Leo, please."

Prue raised the potion in the air and aimed at Cole, no Belthazor. If she referred to him by his human name instead of his demonic one, it made him Phoebe's boyfriend. Prue didn't want to hurt her little sister by killing the man she loved. But if she only thought of him as the demonic murderer he was legendary as, she could easily vanquish him, to protect any future innocents he might harm and save Phoebe in the long run.

Leo blocked Phoebe's view of what was sure to be a gruesome vanquish with his own body. "Cole!" she called.

Prue let the potion fly.

Cole started his shimmering motion the second the vial left Prue's fingertips; he planned to shimmer back by the supposed Cupid to find out his real intent. He didn't complete the disappearing act, however, because a thin hand reached into the air and caught the vial inches away from Cole's face.


	2. Repairs

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Charmed. Some dialogue is taken directly from the show.

**Repairs**

Phoebe of the future glared at her sister, the sister who was deceased in her time. The happiness she'd felt when Prue had walked into the room and the pain at knowing it was all in the past was buried for the moment under her anger. She threw the Belthazor vanquish against the far wall of the mausoleum. It's glass container shattered and liquid dripped down the surface of the granite wall. Moving to Piper, Phoebe did the same with her potion.

"What the..." the younger Phoebe muttered at seeing herself.

"I told you she was with me," Coop said.

His time-traveling companion faced him, "Why are you doing this? You're changing the past. Cole's supposed to get away and I'm supposed to lie to my sisters about vanquishing him."

"You're supposed to what?" Prue looked at the Phoebe of her time. Leo had let the girl go and she'd moved to Cole's arms again.

"Phoebe, why would you..." Piper's sentence trailed off as she noticed for the first time the smoldering ash several yards from the group. "You really were gonna fake his death."

Snuggling into Cole's arms, past Phoebe nodded shamefully. "I can't kill him, Piper, Prue. I'm sorry, but I can't. I love him. And if you'd calm down, you could see that he's good now."

"And what's your excuse?" Coop turned to the other Phoebe. Everyone else followed his gaze.

"We're not allowed to change the past," she said simply. "Who knows how this is already affecting my future."

"But, you said you wished you wouldn't have let Cole go free. You told me earlier that the last thing you said to him was that you'd never look back at your relationship. This way you don't have to. Most of it won't have happened."

"Wha... what happened to Cole," asked Phoebe's younger self fearfully. "How could you wish that about him? I, we, lo-"

"Don't finish that sentence, please. I've heard you say it enough tonight. I know how you feel; I don't need to hear it anymore," future Phoebe told herself before turning to Coop again. "You're a Cupid. Did you honestly believe I meant that? I don't want to erase Cole from my life. All my best moments happened with him."

She paused. "But, so did a bunch of my worst ones. And it hurt; you don't know how much it hurt me when it all fell apart. I know you can read my feelings of those times since they were related to love, but you can't possibly know the extent of the pain I went through. But, I don't want him gone," she felt the tears course down her face, "I never really wanted him gone."

Spinning to face her past self, Phoebe choked back a sob at seeing her in Cole's arms, where she finally admitted to herself that _she_ desperately wanted to be. "Don't you get it? It will hurt! It will hurt so much. You'll put up a shield around your heart, so you don't have to face it. You'll make yourself bury all the pain, the guilt, the regret, the, the love. But, it won't change the feelings. And then a Cupid will come and make you watch him die and your heart will break all over again. So, the shield will get stronger to protect you. Then, the same stupid Cupid will take you to the past again and you'll see him and you'll just want to jump in his arms. You'll hate your past self because she gets to be there and you don't, because you killed him. And all the feelings will come out again. The shield won't be strong enough. Because you were right, we do love him. After everything, I still love him. And, I am so jealous of you; you still have him."

Falling to her knees, future Phoebe cried, "You have him and I want him! I want my soul mate." She turned to Coop once more, "That's what I want to erase, my being a murderer. I want to erase his vanquish. I want him back."

Coop stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on her back while his ring glowed and showed her shield-free heart. Coop smiled sadly and removed them from the sight of those from the past with light in his ring.

"Nobody will look for you anymore. You're dead."

Phoebe looked up at the words. She was crouched behind an old grave, Coop standing behind her. "Wha..."

"Phoebe!"

"Down here!" the petite blond of the past yelled. "You have to go, please," she told her boyfriend before bringing their lips together.

The Phoebe in hiding stood up wiping her eyes, trying to stop the flow of tears. She brushed her dark brown hair away from her face. "You were never gonna let the past be changed for good were you?" she spoke to Coop softly.

He shook his head. "I just needed you to believe in love again, like she does."

Phoebe followed his pointed finger. She watched through teary eyes as Cole shimmered away. Her sisters soon appeared.

"Phoebe, thank God you're okay," Piper said.

The trio looked at the dying flames at Phoebe's feet.

"He killed Krell," Phoebe told them.

"And you did what you had to do," Prue said as she moved to envelope her youngest sibling in a comforting hug.

Phoebe stared at Cole's burning jacket over Prue's shoulder. "I know."

Future Phoebe whispered, "Treasure your time with him."

She wearily looked at Coop. "Can we go now?"

* * *

Descending the steps of the mausoleum, Phoebe sadly glanced around. Cole wouldn't be waiting at the bottom this time, unlike so many instances before. This is where they'd met secretly early in their relationship because it was harder for bounty hunters to track a demon in a cemetery. Not that that mattered that night with Krell.

She and Coop had returned from their journey the day before. He'd said his job of getting her to believe again was accomplished, but that he still wanted to find her a new love so she could be really happy again.

Telling him that since she wasn't in denial anymore about Cole, her ex was the only one she wanted, even though it wasn't possible, only made Coop agree to give her a couple weeks space before he would resume his mission.

Phoebe sighed and took a seat on the cold floor, leaning against the wall. Looking to her right, she noticed a patch of new cement. Aside from her visit to the past, Phoebe hadn't been in the mausoleum in almost five years. Apparently, during her absence, someone had ventured into the old crypt and repaired the ground where a hole had formed from the Belthazor vanquishing potion.

She dreaded Coop's return. He would argue that she needed to really move on and find a love that would work out, unlike all the ones she'd had since Cole. But, Phoebe knew she couldn't do that. It wasn't possible. Cole was the love of her life. No one since him had ever been able to make her heart race the same way; none had ever stirred the same feelings in her heart. No other man ever could. No other relationship would ever be able to measure up. And she wouldn't settle for less. Tears gathered behind her eyelids as she closed them. She remembered the words she's said to her past self after she'd broken down in sobs. She did want Cole back. She still loved him with all of her heart and she hated herself for ever wanting to believe otherwise. She'd run away from love with Cole when it hurt, but if she could just have him back, she'd never make the same mistakes again. She'd believe in him, in their love. She'd make it work forever.

"If I could only have him back," she whispered brokenly.

The sound of a shimmer made her jerk upright. She gasped at the sight that greeted her and almost fell as she scrambled to get to her feet.

Hearing the noise she was making, Cole turned away from the tomb he'd shimmered in front of. He wanted to scream at himself for being so careless and not making sure the place was empty before he appeared, though he never would've expected her.

He couldn't do anything though. He stared at her, transfixed. She still took his breath away. His annoyance at being found out by the one person who wanted him dead the most at their last meeting drained away.

Phoebe met his clear blue eyes after taking in his strong, tall stature. After everything she'd done to hurt him, she was shocked to still see undying love there. But then she realized she must be dreaming because Cole was dead, for good this time.

"Phoebe," he spoke, "what are you doing here?"

"Dreaming..." she whispered and took a few steps closer to him.

"What?"

"I went to the past yesterday and realized that I've been in denial about what I feel for you. I had a chance to erase most of our relationship, to let you die that night at the mausoleum when I let you go, but I chose to save you again. So, know that I've admitted I'll always love you, I must be dreaming you up. Because," her voice wavered, "I killed you and I can never have the happiness we had again. I can never have you."

"What are you talking about?" Cole closed the distance between them and grabbed her arms. "I'm real."

"How?" she whispered, not quite believing although his warm hands on her seemed real.

"A demon resurrected me, as Belthazor, back at the end of last year. He thought I'd want revenge on you and your sisters and that I'd help him kill you. I vanquished him instead and began a new life for myself."

Phoebe came out of her stupor, "What?"

"I got a job at a good law office, moved back into the penthouse, and decided to leave you alone, like you wanted before. I'm sorry I wouldn't leave you before and all the hurt I caused you. But, I'm truly good and perfectly sane. I use my skills as a lawyer and my powers as a demon to help innocents now, from supernatural and mortal evil."

"You're avoiding me? Then, why are you at our mausoleum?" Phoebe asked, the reality of the situation slowly sinking in.

"Our mausoleum? Um, my father's buried here. I was visiting. And, you haven't come here in years."

Sick of questions and explanations, Phoebe threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. He grabbed her waist, pulling her close against him and deepening the kiss.

Cole broke away first, "Maybe this is a dream. My dream."

Phoebe smiled, "I already told you I've stopped denying my feelings."

"Yeah, but-"

"And, I'm sorry for how I treated you back then. But, now we can have another chance, right? And, we'll make it work this time, Cole. Because, I do love you. I always have and I always will; nothing will _ever_ change that."

Grinning, Cole promised, "I love you, too, Phoebe. Always."

**The End**


End file.
